Thank you very much, Monsieur Bouchard.
The issue of the quantity of money that has to go into creating a dental education is very concerning to us, because if it is only the affluent who can afford to get into these programs, then it is going to change the culture of the profession as we go forward.
In answer to your question about the variability in tuition among universities in the country, I can tell you that it is variable, but it is not significantly variable. If you look at the quote we used, it's $32,000 a year at the University of British Columbia. We understand, obviously, that there's a cost of living issue in B.C. That's one of the reasons it amounts to $171,000. That is the figure I used for what a graduate spends on tuition fees.
The tuition fee problem comes from the fact that there is an underfunded circumstance in the universities at large. The student is having to bear the cost of that education, and dental education is extremely expensive. It's expensive from a facility standpoint and it's expensive from a tutorial standpoint. It's going to be expensive to hire these people. We are losing competent educators to other jurisdictions, particularly to the United States, because they offer better benefits and better salaries.
Is there a solution to that problem? Yes. It can be found, as most things are found, in funding. The funding of the universities, unfortunately, has been far behind for a very long time.
I turn to Mr. Fefergrad.